HHCP’s Art-Topia complex in Qingdao, China, will soon debut as the city prepares to host the sailing events of the 2008 Olympic Games. Prominently featured on Qingdao’s beautiful Pacific coastline, Art-Topia will be a place of many ‘firsts.” As the world’s first interactive arts center, Art-Topia will enable visitors to discover art in its many forms: displayed in the galleries…produced on-site by professional artists…and created by the visitors themselves. And now Art-Topia will have the honor of another first: the initial satellite location of the prestigious National Art Museum of China.

The design for the interior atrium of the new NAMOC facility will present the same classic sculptural attributes of form, color, light and motion that shaped the design of the entire Art-Topia complex. Natural light washing through the entry and atrium will create a dramatic effect as light and shadow play across the sculpted interior form. Here, visitors will encounter a trio of intriguing sculptures conceived by HHCP titled “1-PART,” “4-ART,” and “2-PLAY”—the last of which doubles as a children’s interactive climbing structure.

According to NAMOC Director Fan Di’an, “…the spectacular architecture of Art-Topia was a key factor” in the decision to select Qingdao for the first sister city expansion of China’s world renowned museum. For Art-Topia’s visitors, that architecture will soon serve as an invitation to explore the possibilities of art in an engaging new way.